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“Chris, the flower vendor just called me.” Leon poked his head into the kitchen. Chris turned to face him from his spot at the coffee machine. “They have to cancel.”
“What? Lee, the wedding is in one week.” Chris moved forward with his hands out. Leon met him in the middle and took his outstretched hands in his own with a deep sigh.
“I know. Apparently the main florist who's in charge had a death in their immediate family. We're getting a refund per our contract, but we have no flowers.”
“Well, f- fudge.”
Leon couldn't help but smirk a little, turning his head to the side. He would never admit this out loud, but he deeply adored how Chris tried to censor himself while at home for Rose’s sake. “I'll call around for more places, but I think we'll have to prepare for the reality that we won't have any. It's okay.”
Chris’s eyes narrowed. “It's not okay. I want flowers.”
“You're not gonna die without freaking flowers, Chris.” Leon huffed. He tugged his hands out of Chris’s grip to stalk over to get his own coffee for the morning. Okay, maybe it was his third cup, but who's counting.
“It matters to me that the wedding is perfect, Leon.”
Leon remained silent at that as he wrangled a mug from the cupboard and filled it. Before he could turn to grab creamer from the fridge, Chris was by his side pouring in the small splash that Leon liked.
“Thanks.” Leon mumbled. He took a long sip.
Chris leaned on the counter next to him, studying him carefully. “I want a perfect wedding because I think you deserve it.”
“Chris–”
“We both deserve it. After everything we've been through, everything we've done, everything we've lost, we both deserve a single day where everything is perfect. I want it to be exactly what you and I want. Plus, we need petals for Rose to throw, or we'll be disrupting months of planning on her part. I can call flower places for you instead.”
Leon held Chris’s gaze for as long as he was able, before ducking his head and resting it against Chris's shoulder. “You remember what kind of flowers I like, big guy?”
“Yep. You'll get your hydrangeas.” Chris ran his hands up and down Leon’s back as they embraced.
“Blue.”
“Yep, they'll be blue.”
Leon snorted at Chris’s sincerity before wriggling out of his arms. “I've gotta go, DSO waits for no one. I'll see you later. Love you.” He gave Chris a quick peck on the lips before chugging his lukewarm coffee and leaving for work.
“Love you more!” Chris shouted after him as he exited the house.
***
It was simple. All Leon ever really wanted was to have a small beach wedding. He had agonized for months on a specific location. That one is too far south, that one doesn't face the correct direction for the sunset, that one doesn't have the facilities he wanted, that one would be closed in January; all rejects.
It was only after Ingrid Hunnigan got involved that the perfect location was found. She had been tired of his endless worrying about the topic in the office and had silently placed a folder with the details on a location in Maryland on his desk at the end of the day one Friday afternoon. She didn't stick around to discuss it with him, but it did warm his heart when he leafed through the photos and pages she went out of her way to print for him.
Leon kept one of those photos on his desk for months afterwards, taking the time to look at it fondly often and imagine what was going to be real and tangible soon enough.
He pretended it wasn't the end of the world when he got a call about a bad storm that came through and destroyed a lot of the property in late December. They would be closed indefinitely. Leon nodded along to the sympathetic but stressed owner as she described how they probably wouldn't even have power back in the main house by the wedding date. They ended the phone call with her promising to email him some locations run by her friends that may be able to take them at the last minute. It wouldn't be a beachfront wedding at all anymore, but they could have something somewhere.
Leon spent a long time after that just staring at the photo on his desk, carding it through his fingers, bending the corners of the photo paper, before he set it face down on his desk. It was okay. He didn't need a beach wedding. It's already more than he deserves to have a wedding in the first place. So it has to be okay.
However, he wasn't sure how he was going to break this to Chris. Chris had previously said that he didn't care where they got married, as long as it happened. But once Leon said the beach, Chris had been all in on it, making a bunch of decisions around the winter beach aesthetic. Leon didn't think it'd be the type of thing Chris was interested in, yet Chris was always full of surprises. Leon thinks Chris just enjoyed the opportunity to work on something so mundane. They've had talks before about why Chris loved going to and interfacing with Rose’s school so much; he got to be normal and worry about normal things for a little bit. It's the type of thing Chris really needed for his own mental health.
Leon would do anything to protect that for Chris. So he decided he would avoid telling Chris about the location change for a bit. If he doesn't say it, then it doesn't exist. A part of him knew that was an objectively bad idea, but he didn't have the emotional bandwidth to deal with how both of them would feel about changing gears so late in the game.
***
Chris wanted to drive an hour east so he could go stand on the beach and scream out at the ocean. It would be sufficiently thematic for him to curse the heavens and the earth for ruining his plans there. He had a short list of entities he could hold responsible, starting at Neptune and ending with the pure personification of storms itself. This didn’t start to address the amount of frustration he felt that Leon delayed telling him out of some fear of his reaction, mostly at himself. He knew he had a short fuse but he worked so hard to control it, goddammit.
His normal methods for frustration relief weren't working. He just spent an hour at the BSAA gym destroying each person who tried to spar with him, but he didn't feel any better. He still had to pull his punches enough to not actually hurt anyone. What he needed was a thick concrete wall he could slam into until it crumbled under his weight.
Everything was going wrong. He just wanted this one thing in his life to go right, and it was slipping through his fingers. Leon said it didn't matter that the location changed. Chris knew he was fucking lying to him. It mattered so much. Not just for Leon, but for Chris, who had gotten his hopes up.
Chris sat post-shower on a bench in the men's locker room at the BSAA HQ with his head hanging down and a towel around his neck. He would spend just a few more minutes cooling down, and then he would head home.
Someone cleared their throat nearby. “Bad day, Captain?”
Chris rubbed his face with his hands before turning to look at DC. “Bad day.” He agreed with a small smile.
“Damn, bad enough that beating up all your men didn't help?” DC opened his locker and rummaged through for his gym clothes.
“No. Although I didn’t beat you up, so maybe that's my missing piece.” Chris stood, opening his own locker for his day clothes.
“I give up preemptively.” DC raised his hands in defeat. “You got me good, boss. Good enough to make you feel better. We can tell everyone that's what happened.”
Chris nodded absentmindedly as they both started changing. As he went to leave, DC put a hand on his shoulder.
“You know, if there's anything wrong, we're with you. We'll support you a hundred percent. You can rely on us.” DC paused a moment before continuing. “Outside the office, too. As friends.”
Chris broke out into a real smile at that. “I know. That's what makes you guys the best.” He clapped DC on the shoulder before side stepping him and walking out.
He stopped for a regenerative cup of mid-afternoon coffee before heading back to his office. He had so much work to do before his wedding and honeymoon with very little time to do it. It was easy to get sucked into a report as he got back into the groove for about an hour without interruption.
“Captain. I saw your email.” Nadia burst into Chris’s office without knocking.
Chris looked over from his computer screen with one eyebrow raised. He had an open door policy, but usually people at least knocked.
“About the wedding. The change of location. You didn't say where it's changing to.” She stood in front of his desk with her arms crossed. “This isn't you secretly trying to uninvite all of us at the BSAA, is it?”
“What? Why would I ever do that?” Chris’s confusion and indignation at her comment made her relax, because he couldn't lie for shit with his reactions and expressions. “No, the location Leon booked was destroyed in that recent storm that hit the coast. We're trying to find somewhere new but it's difficult on such short notice.”
Nadia apparently took that as an invitation to talk as she proceeded to plop down in the chair in front of his desk. “Another beach location? You know, my wife’s sister has a house on the beach. Not in Maryland but further south, in Virginia. It's a nice place if not a little bit of a drive. She's not there during the winter, I'm sure if we asked she'd be okay with a small wedding being hosted there. As long as we don't trash the place. It's got private beach access and everything.”
“Oh, that's a nice offer, but I–”
“You better not be about to say that you can't accept it, or that you need to think about it, or whatever you're about to do. Honestly, I’m not politely suggesting here.”
Chris chuckled at that. That's the kind of stubbornness he loved to see in his team, even if it did remind him of himself a little too much.
“I need to at least run it by Leon, first. How about this? You email me pictures of the place, after you confirm in writing that your sister is okay with us using the place, and we both pretend that we were working really hard this afternoon instead of gossiping about my wedding.”
Nadia grinned at him as she stood. “As you say, Captain.” She left his office with a wave over her shoulder.
***
Leon paced back and forth while waiting at the bakery. Because of the location change, they couldn't have it delivered the day of anymore. Leon would be driving it down to the house in Virginia himself, while transporting some of the other decorations and items they had thrown together themselves.
Fine. It was all fine. It's not a big cake, it's only a small two tier wedding cake. They were even giving him a structured protective box to transport it. As good as they would box it up themselves for transport, they said. He just needed to keep the car cool and not drive like a psycho for a couple of hours. Get it in one piece to the right place at the right time.
The bakery was nice enough to help hoist it into his trunk before he signed the final waiver saying that he understood if the cake didn't make it or got destroyed, it was his responsibility from that moment on.
Chris was driving down the next day, bringing Claire and Rose with him. His team member Nadia had been down there for a week already with her wife, making sure the house was in working order for people to stay there. Everyone else would be driving down or flying in on their own time before the wedding that weekend.
That meant Leon was driving by himself. He was okay with that. He'd get to listen to his own music and not talk to anyone for two hours, which he felt was the perfect amount of time for a last minute meltdown alone in the car.
The first time Chris had brought up marriage, Leon had said no.
It's not that he wasn't excited. Hell, this was the most excited he had ever been in his entire life. It's just that so many things had gone wrong in the past month that he was still reeling from, and he couldn't help but dread what else could go wrong.
It's not that he didn't want to get married. God, he wanted it more than anything for so much of his life, but it had never been more than a distant dream. Something he could daydream about in moments of rest like someone would dream of fairytales before returning to the cold hard reality that he lived in.
He had spent his entire life thinking he would never get this. First it was that he’d never be able to marry someone he truly loved, then it was that he'd never be able to get married at all. So he hadn't said no because he didn't want to, he said no because he was terrified. He was scared of all the ways it was bound to go wrong. It wasn't something that someone like him was supposed to do, not in his line of work.
Chris understood that about Leon. He was relentlessly positive about it until he managed to convince Leon that they had to at least try. Well, Chris was relentless, for years, but it was Rose asking why they weren't married if they were together that pushed Leon over the edge. She was by far both of their greatest weaknesses. Yet each new thing that went wrong was only further proof that Leon had been correct originally and that Chris was making a huge mistake.
Leon would later admit that he wasn't focused as much as he should have been on the road, but the light had been green, so he went without checking. This didn't take into account the truck that didn't slow down and ran a red light, t-boning Leon’s porsche.
***
“Call him again, I'm sure he's just late. Or in a bad service area.” Chris didn't move from his spot at the stove where he was making mac and cheese for Rose. Chris was willing to admit that Leon was a much better cook than him, but a couple of nights of basic pasta dishes wasn't gonna be the end of the world.
Claire leaned back in her chair, tipping it on its back legs as she redialed Leon’s number. “Alright.”
“Hey, no leaning back like that! It's dangerous.” Chris chastised. “What if Rose saw that?”
“Saw what?” Rose asked from where she sat on the living room floor coloring. Claire tipped back forward while rolling her eyes at Chris, putting the phone to her ear.
“Nothing. Are you ready to eat, honey?” Chris called back out to Rose.
“Yeah!” Rose came rushing into the kitchen as Claire pulled her phone back to look at it with a frown.
“What's Nadia’s number? I'll just call her really quick and ask her if he's there yet,” Claire said.
“Uh, it's on my phone.” Chris glanced over at her grabbing his phone from its spot on the table. “You remember my passcode, I'm sure.”
“Yup.” Claire stood while she scrolled through his contacts, wandering out of the room while the phone rang.
“Okay, what do you want to drink with your food?” Chris asked Rose as he filled a bowl with pasta for her and set it in front of her.
“Can I have some apple juice?”
“Yeah, no problem.”
After pouring her a glass, Chris sat in his usual chair at the table. Rose regaled him with an interesting tale about one of her classmates until Claire rejoined them.
“She said that they haven't seen him yet. When did he leave again?” Claire sat in Leon’s usual spot while tossing Chris’s phone back at him.
“Uh, I think he said he was leaving the bakery around 2pm.” Chris responded.
“Hmm, it's only a two hour drive, right?” Claire glanced at the clock. 5:30pm. “What could be the delay? Traffic?”
“I don't know, it can get bad in the area for sure. But he'd still answer his phone if that were the case.” Chris chewed his lip as he checked the last time Leon had texted him. It wasn't making any sense that he wasn't answering.
His mounting concern rose to panic each hour he didn't get a response from Leon. At 7pm, he called Ingrid Hunnigan.
Chris Redfield, is there a reason you're calling me at this hour?
“I can't get in contact with Leon. He was supposed to be driving down to our wedding venue this afternoon but he should've gotten there at 4, and it's 7 now. He's not answering his phone. Is there some way you can find him?”
Well, I'm flattered at your trust in my capabilities. However, Leon is great at going dark for hours at a time.
“Yeah. On missions. In the field. Not two days before his wedding and not to me during off days.
Ingrid went silent at that. Chris could hear her sigh, shifting and rustling something on the other side of the line before the clack of her typing came through.
I can check when and where his cellphone last pinged a cell tower.
“Thanks, Ingrid.”
Don't mention it. Unless this counts as your wedding present. In which case, I have a return to make.
“Well, I'd still like whatever you got us.” He could hear more typing and some clicking.
I'm sure. Okay, the system is pulling up now. His phone last pinged at 3:56pm, just outside of Williamsburg, Virginia. That's… strange. It hasn't pinged another tower since then. He's not the type of person to turn off his phone.
“Fuck.” Chris muttered softly to himself. “Well, thanks for looking.”
Chris hung up at that. This wasn't good. Leon's one of the most capable people on the planet, so what could've gone wrong. He exited the master bedroom where he had been hiding out and decided to go out into the backyard to pace.
***
Leon felt like shit, and yet far away from it all. He kept asking for a phone to use, but the nurses in the ER were too busy to help him.
It was strangely packed, but it wasn't a large hospital in the first place. Leon had been brought in while cycling between conscious and unconscious via ambulance despite his protests and left on a gurney in one of the ER hallways. They didn't have a room for him, but his tenuous grip on consciousness was concerning enough to keep him there. As far as he could tell, nothing was broken. He had definitely shaken off worse from BOWs, so he wanted to bail.
The two problems he had at the current moment were that his phone was shattered in the crash and his porsche was totaled. Leon threw an arm over his face as he thought about his precious car. The insurance nightmare he was going to be dealing with after this all was beyond the darkest depths of his imagination. The phone he couldn't care less about, except for the fact that he needed to call Chris.
And oh my god, the cake. His fucking cake, that he and Chris had spent all that time picking out flavors for and deciding decorations. His goddamned spiced chocolate cake with salted caramel filling that he spent the past month fantasizing about. Just thinking about it in his current state made him want to cry. It was another thing in a long line of fuck ups that he was responsible for with this disaster of a wedding. He couldn't imagine why Chris would want to marry him at all after this. He couldn't complete one basic task and drive a cake two hours without screwing it up.
After another half hour of waiting and wallowing, he cautiously sat up. He was hit with a wave of nausea. Fuck, he really hoped he didn't have a concussion. The loss of consciousness thing from before was not a good sign.
When Leon felt like he wouldn't throw up anymore, he slid off the gurney onto his feet. He made it about 20 feet down the hallway, bracing against the wall, before a nurse spotted him and walked him back to the gurney with a short lecture.
“But I need to call Chris.” He whined at her as she gently pushed him back into a lying position on the gurney.
“I'll get in contact. Who's Chris?” She asked.
Leon’s head was throbbing and his brain was scattered. His train of thought jumped from point to point as he considered. Chris was his fiancé, but they were getting married in a couple of days, but maybe Chris wouldn't want him anymore after this, but he still needed a phone call. “Um. My- my fiancé. Emergency contact. Chris Redfield.” He didn't sound confident about it.
If the nurse had any thoughts about that, she didn't show it, her face remaining professionally neutral. “What's his phone number?”
Leon rattled off the number. A win for the older generation that he still memorized phone numbers like it was decades prior.
“I'll go contact Mr. Redfield. But you have to stay here, and remain lying down. Please don't get up again for your own sake, okay? After I call your fiancé, I'll see about getting you a room to stay in.”
Leon nodded and let his head fall back. The bright lights of the hallway were starting to get to him. He wasn't sure how much time had passed before the nurse returned.
“Okay Mr. Kennedy. I called your fiancé and he's on his way. I've got a room for you that I'm going to take you to right now.”
Leon gave her a weak thumbs up.
***
Chris wasn't one for speeding like a maniac. That was more Leon’s style. Yet for the drive down to the hospital he had gotten a call from, he broke personal and legal records.
Claire stayed behind with Rose at Chris’s begging. She insisted that they'd come down the next day no matter what, as planned. He agreed to that before peeling off in his jeep.
The nurse who had called him was brief without any explanation. Just that Leon had been in a car accident and was in the hospital. In the hour and a half it took him to get there, his mind swirled with all sorts of worst case scenarios. He wasn't unfamiliar with the feeling. They both had spent decades in one of the most dangerous professions possible, fighting all sorts of insane abominations that had claimed the lives of countless people, both civilian and not. It was somehow the mundanity of the situation that was the worst part; the basic reality that at any time, despite everything they had survived, something small and simple could be the thing that finished them off. It didn't help that he was dealing with a random civilian nurse who didn't know him well enough to be scared and tell him everything. If he was dealing with the DSO or BSAA, his position would get him the whole situation in a snap of his fingers.
He didn't care to look and see if the first parking spot he found was for visitors or not. He ran inside and silently cursed the line at the front desk. When it was finally the turn of the lady in front of him, his nervous shifting had increased to maximum.
The lady started arguing with the receptionist. She was insisting that she needed to be seen right away for her stomachache, while the receptionist was telling her she needed to sit back down and wait until it was her turn. This was the last fucking need he needed. Before Chris was able to start freaking out and yelling at everyone involved, she stormed back over to her seat in a huff. Chris gripped the front desk with white knuckles as it became his turn.
“My name is Chris Redfield, I'm here for a Leon Kennedy. I'm his emergency contact.”
The receptionist ducked his head as he typed something into his computer. “He’s in… room 16. Down that way,” the receptionist pointed. “And to the left.”
Chris wasn’t in a headspace to think to say thank you. He all but ran in the right direction, quickly reading over the room signs as he searched for Leon’s. By the time his hand was on the handle of the correct door, he felt like he was gonna throw up.
The overhead lights inside were off. After Chris’s eyes adjusted, he could see someone lying in a bed with an arm over their face. He rushed to their side. Leon was lying there, breathing slowly.
“Leon.” Chris placed a hand on Leon’s shoulder and gently shook. At the sound of his name, Leon lifted his arm slightly to peek from behind.
“Wh’ are you doin’ here, ‘ris?” Leon barely managed to mumble out. His arm fell down to one side.
Chris looked him up and down, but Leon had no visible injuries except a thin cut that stretched from his right eyebrow into his hairline that was currently closed with a butterfly closure. “Here for you, dummy.”
“Hmm…” Leon nodded. It was clear that he had been asleep and was still waking up. “What time is it?”
Chris glanced at his watch. “Almost 10pm. How are you feeling?”
“Well, everything’s starting to hurt. Don’t think I got injured, just that I’m old.”
“Oh, taking a free nap then?”
“It’s definitely not free. Especially since, fuck!” Leon’s hands flew to his face as his voice cracked. “My fucking car.”
Chris hummed as he dragged a chair from the wall over to the side of the bed. “That bad?”
Leon sighed from behind his hands. “Totaled. Complete lost cause. Did its job of crumpling to save my life or whatever.”
“I’m thankful for that.”
Leon went to cross his arms, tucking his hands under his pits as he sank back into his pillow. “Then you’re buying me a new one.”
“I’ll buy you anything you want.”
Leon remained silent at that. He was staring forward into the dark, his face only lit by the low light from a singular lamp standing in the corner. Not looking at Chris while they talked only meant one thing; he was blaming himself for something that wasn’t his fault.
“Don’t get lost on me now.” Chris placed his hand on Leon’s leg with a small smile. Leon’s eyes snapped to Chris before he cast them down to look at his lap. “What are you thinking about?”
Leon chewed his lip for a few more moments. His voice was barely a whisper when he spoke. “...The cake.”
“The– the what?” Chris leaned in. He had no idea what Leon just whispered.
“The cake.” Leon said a little louder, rising frustration in his voice. “The cake is gone.”
“The cake. You’re worried about the cake?” Chris was incredulous at that.
“Yes. Because I was supposed–”
“The only thing ever expected of you, from me and everyone else, is that you’re safe and alive. The fucking cake, Leon. I can buy us a cake from anywhere.” Chris didn’t want to seem annoyed while reassuring Leon, but he was very low on emotional energy at the moment after having a continuous panic attack for the past few hours thinking that Leon was dead.
“Not my spiced chocolate cake with salted caramel filling.”
“--with salted caramel filling, yeah.” Chris said with him at the same time. “It would have been very good. I’ll buy you as many of those as you want later. We don’t need it.” Chris squeezed Leon’s leg.
Leon made eye contact with Chris, who held it in silence. Chris refused to, under any circumstances, ever be the one who caved in their staredowns. When Leon gave up, he reached out to grab Chris’s hand resting on his leg, looking at that instead.
Chris let Leon take his hand in his, while shifting to fish his phone out of his pocket with his free hand. “I have some people to call.”
“All to gossip about me, I’m sure.”
“Yep. The gossip is whether or not you’re alive.” Chris then stopped before hitting call on Claire’s contact. “Do you know when you’re gonna be discharged?”
“No. Honestly I think I could’ve left awhile ago, but the nurse kept saying that the doctor was too busy to check on me. I don’t think anything’s broken. Fifty fifty on having a concussion.”
Chris nodded while standing. “Let me call Claire, then I’ll go talk to someone about your status.”
“Take your time.” Leon said as he closed his eyes.
Chris walked back out of the room. After updating Claire on the situation, he flagged down a nurse. “Hi, I’m here for Leon Kennedy. Do you know what he was diagnosed with, or what was wrong?”
“I believe the concern was a concussion from the accident. Mr. Kennedy regained consciousness quickly, but struggled to maintain it. He also reported nausea and a headache. There were no other injuries of concern other than a laceration on his forehead. He was being kept for monitoring post head injury, but a doctor hasn’t been able to discharge him yet.”
“Okay, is there anything I need to do in particular for him? For that, or just to make his life better.”
“He’ll be discharged with a packet of information on what type of care he’ll need as he recovers.”
“Thanks.” With that, Chris went back into Leon’s room. Leon had fallen back asleep quickly.
Chris sat back in his chair and leaned back, waiting for someone to come around and discharge Leon.
***
Leon didn't get up from where he was lying on the couch when he heard the doorbell ring. He could hear an upbeat Chris open the door and greet whoever was there. A familiar woman's voice responded, accompanied by the running feet of a little human.
Rose came barreling into the living room from the entryway, spotted Leon, and immediately ran up and jumped on top of him.
“Oof, come on kiddo. You'll kill me.”
Rose rested her head on his chest while hugging him. “We thought something was wrong.”
“Nothing’s wrong.” Leon patted her back. “It was just a little accident. Although I'm gonna need a new car. You'll help me pick one out, right?”
Rose nodded at that. He could see she still had a frown on her face. He hated that it was there because of him. They remained in silence as Leon rubbed her back with her listening to the sound of his heartbeat.
Claire eventually came in with Chris. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped when she saw that Rose had fallen asleep. She opted to instead give Leon's arm a quick pat before disappearing into the kitchen on the other side of the room. Chris sighed while dropping down onto the floor next to Leon, resting his head against Leon's arm on the couch.
“How was their drive?” Leon whispered.
“Stressful, apparently. Rose didn't travel well without us. The stress about you didn't make things better for her or Claire.” Chris’s voice was too loud despite his efforts to match Leon’s whispering.
“Quiet down. Only nod yes or no. Or hand signals. You'll wake Rose.” Leon scolded. Chris smiled at that but obeyed with a short nod.
“Did they bring the rest of the wedding stuff?”
Nod yes.
“Do we need to go out and get anything else?”
Shake no.
“Is everything ready, then?”
Nod yes.
“Great.” Leon let his head fall back onto the pillow and closed his eyes. He was still so tired. He was fairly certain he didn't actually have a concussion, just that the fatigue of the past few months was coming to a head and the car accident didn't help.
He could hear Chris shifting to stand, while pressing a gentle kiss to Leon’s temple. Leon dozed off after that.
***
“...Is that really the cake you got?” Leon sounded more flabbergasted than disappointed.
Chris looked down at the cake he just presented to Leon. It was a chocolate cake he got at the local grocery store after every bakery in town told him they couldn't get him a cake in time. He had personally scraped off the ‘happy birthday’ text with a knife and tried to smooth the frosting back down afterwards. It sat next to a plastic bag of assorted flowers from the same store in the color blue. He was proud of what he managed to get done with such short notice.
“Yeah. It's chocolate.” Chris looked back up at Leon with a grin.
Leon took a long, controlled deep breath. “I have to go finish getting ready.”
“Oh come on, it's not that bad!” Chris shouted after him as Leon left the kitchen. Back to their shared room, Chris assumed. The house was large with enough bedrooms for those staying over to have their own, as long as couples stayed together.
It was the morning of their wedding. A lot of things had gone wrong, but everyone was intact, present, and lucid. That's all Chris could ever want and ask for. Fancy nonsense wasn't their style anyways.
Chris placed the cake back in the fridge before making the rounds around the house. People had been arriving at random throughout the morning. Leon had been very particular about their start time in the early afternoon.
So far the only person left missing was Sherry Birkin. She had already called earlier, almost in tears, explaining that her flight had been delayed but she should be there on time. Leon would delay the whole world for her if he could, so he said they would wait.
When Chris went to check on Rose, she was sitting getting her hair braided by Claire in the room they stayed in together. Every few inches, Claire wove a flower into Rose’s light blonde locks.
“Everyone working hard in here?” Chris asked as he entered the room.
Rose was watching the TV while Claire worked, eating a snack and swinging her legs. She glanced at Chris before going back to watching the screen.
“Clearly.” Claire responded. She was already dressed in a long navy dress with her hair pulled back.
“We've all got hard jobs today, huh?” Chris sat on the bed next to Rose.
“Rose and I do. What job are you doing that's going to be so difficult?” Claire sounded annoyed that he was breaking her concentration.
Chris couldn't fight the urge to make things a little harder for her, twisting to grin at her. “I have the hardest job. Look good while doing nothing.”
Claire scoffed at that, tying Rose’s braid and stepping back. “That's definitively the highest hurdle any of us will have to ever face. Now scram, so I can finish getting ready.”
Chris leaned down enough to stage whisper to Rose. “Wow, you hearing how mean she is to me?”
Rose only gave him a raised eyebrow in response as she continued eating her snack.
“Traitors, all of you.” Chris grumbled as he stood. “Other than that, we're ready to start when Sherry gets here, right?”
“Right. Now get.”
“Alright alright, I'm leaving.” Chris left the two to finish getting ready.
Chris had been making himself busy on purpose. He could admit he was nervous. His family was the most important thing to him in his life, but enough years of loss had him on edge. If he could just remain busy, he'd be able to enjoy himself.
He wandered outside into the backyard, where Nadia and her wife were setting up chairs around fold up tables.
“How's the setup going?” Chris asked.
“Good!” Nadia’s wife, Sam, answered in high spirits. She was smoothing out a tablecloth over one of the tables.
Nadia only glanced at Chris. She was currently attempting to carry six folding chairs at once and doing quite well at it.
“Great.” Chris smiled as he approached the table Sam was at. “Thanks again for everything you two have done. It really means a lot.”
“We're happy to help.” Sam beamed. She leaned in over the table. “Plus, I love weddings! If I could make Nadia have a second wedding, I would.”
Chris laughed at that. “I know what you mean. I was lucky enough to get Leon to do it at all. What our partners will do for love, yeah?”
Sam only smiled as she moved to the next table with another table cloth.
Nadia dropped the chairs she was holding on the ground before grabbing one to unfold and set at a table. “Shouldn't you be getting ready? Surely you're not getting married in that.”
Chris looked down at his outfit. An old BSAA t-shirt and sweatpants. “I don't need a lot of time to get ready. It's just a change of clothes.”
“And your hair?”
Chris’s hand flew to his head, sheepishly patting down the short hairs. “It's– it's not that bad, right? I thought it looked fine.”
Nadia and Sam shared a look.
“Okay, okay, I'll go work on it.” Chris raised his hands in defeat as he turned and went back inside.
He had been trying to give Leon his space to get ready. Leon was much more particular about how he looked and didn't like it when Chris hovered around him during his sacred hairstyling time.
Chris leaned his head against the door to their room before knocking quietly. “Coming in, Lee.”
He didn't wait for a response. Leon was standing in front of the dresser buttoning his dress shirt. They had agreed they didn't need anything fancy; just nice slacks and button downs. Chris didn't even own a suit anyways. Leon acknowledged his prescience with a short nod.
“Do you think my hair looks bad?” Chris was feeling self-conscious enough to ask.
Leon raised an eyebrow as he smoothed down the front of his shirt. “I believe you said you got that haircut specifically because it required no upkeep.”
“Yeah, but Nadia and Sam asked if I was really going to get married looking like this…”
“Oh for fucksake.” Leon frowned as he marched over to Chris. He wet a finger to smooth down the front of Chris’s hair. “Never listen to a lesbian’s opinion on your hair.”
Chris smiled while sneaking his hands onto Leon’s waist. “As long as you like it.”
“I like it.” Leon affirmed after patting down and shaping Chris’s hair.
Leon’s own hair was perfectly styled in the swoop of bangs he preferred. Chris knew if he reached out, it would be silky and soft, but he also might lose a hand if he tried that at this moment. Chris would settle for being able to look now and touch later.
“Let me get changed, then we can make sure everything is ready to go for when Sherry gets here.”
Leon’s eyes narrowed. “You’re the one holding onto me.”
Chris lifted his hands in defeat and backed up to the closet, where his outfit was hanging. Leon sat on the bed with a small sigh, leaning back to look at Chris while he changed.
“No privacy for me?” Chris asked while pulling his shirt off.
“Nope. Love the view.”
Chris chuckled. He’s certain in this moment right now that he’s made the right decision. He’s never been more certain of anything in his whole life; marrying Leon was something he had to do no matter what.
***
Sherry Birkin arrived exactly at 12:57pm, three minutes before call time. Another stubborn warrior in the fight against BOWs channeling that power into such a banal activity as a wedding.
She hopped through the door while swapping shoes from driving sneakers to nice flats. She had a flowery blue blouse and a long dark pencil skirt on with stockings. She adjusted her glasses before giving Claire a hug as they stood in the entryway of the house.
Claire gave her back a few pats. “Okay, let’s get this party started.”
The group gathered and casually walked out into the backyard, through the gate, and out onto white sandy dunes. There was a nearby wooden pier that they had permission to stand on that they all lined up on. Rose threw rose petals in large fistfuls as they walked.
The most important people in Chris and Leon’s lives were there. Claire officiated with laughs and cries as she described how she always knew this would happen someday. Sherry wiped her eyes and held hands with Rose. Jake stood behind Sherry with crossed arms. Jill and Carlos stood beside them, Helena across from them. Ingrid balanced expertly on the wooden boards in her heels. Nadia, Sam, DC, Rebecca, Barry Burton, and a handful of other important BSAA members crowded in behind. They didn’t need anything more than that.
It wasn’t a big fanfare or too long. Chris, in his strong baritone, made the same promise he made almost ten years prior. He loved Leon the way he was and would continue to do so no matter how much either of them changed. Leon, low and steady, reminded Chris that there was so much about him to be loved that Leon would spend the rest of his life doing so. He loved Chris and would chase him to the ends of the earth to do it forever. Chris slipped the ring onto Leon’s finger with ease, while Leon’s hands just barely shook as he threaded Chris’s on.
With cheers and thrown flowers, they kissed against the backdrop of the sandy waves.
***
It was a simple backyard reception. Leon was feeling sick at how it had gone so far. The food was good, the drinks were okay, the cake was a disaster, and he couldn’t make himself do more than strained smiles and slight nods.
His head was still hurting. He loved the ceremony itself, but the rest of this seemed too far outside of his wheelhouse. Chris was the one good at socializing, not Leon. It’s not that he wasn’t capable of it. He had done it plenty of times before when on missions. That made him feel all the more guilty that he couldn’t fight past the rising hurt in the back of his throat. All these people were his friends, his family. They meant everything and he wasn’t able to muster even half an hour of polite conversation for them on his wedding day of all things.
Leon stood up abruptly from his chair. “Bathroom.” He mumbled to Chris before heading inside the house.
He needed somewhere private to freak out, where someone wouldn't be able to find him and bother him. He decided that the garage was a smart choice. Against the cold concrete walls, Leon sat on the floor with his legs pulled towards his chest and his arms resting crossed on top, his head buried in them.
Leon was certain he had been right before, that someone like him didn't deserve to get married. Everything went wrong when he was involved. He should've never caved into his own selfishness. He should've never tried to drag Chris down with him. Chris deserved more than someone who wasn’t able to do the basics for him.
Chris had all these prospects and accomplishments in life that Leon didn't. He spent three decades fighting bioterrorism without complaint, not letting it knock him down. He rooted out the corruption in the BSAA alongside Jill, protecting the new generation of fighters. He was raising Rose to be a confident young lady who could stand up for herself. These were all the actions of a responsible, respectable man that really changed the world with his stubborn goodness in the face of evil.
Leon wouldn't necessarily say that he wasted his life. An objective part of his brain was aware of the people he helped. It was also aware of all the people he failed. To this day, he wasn't able to look at his hands without seeing the blood on them. Those people had deserved to live and he didn't save them. What was Leon in comparison to Chris Redfield?
His father would say he was a disappointment and should've never been born. His mother would say he was an abomination and a sinner. He had no one else that could appraise him, other than those here at the wedding. Leon was bad at making friends in general. He never had a knack for it, even before the trauma of bioterrorism left a nasty crack in his psyche. He didn't have friends in school, he didn't get the opportunity to make friends at the RPD before he had to put them all down, he didn't make any friends during his military training, and he realized he had to give up after Spain.
The only people still around were people too stubborn to leave him alone. Claire Redfield, famous for heading into an infested Raccoon City with no formal training in search of her brother at the age of nineteen. Sherry Birkin, a little girl so brave in the face of danger that there was no way she wouldn't grow up into the woman she was today. Jill Valentine, who survived hell multiple times and always came back with fire in her eyes. Rebecca Chambers, capable of channeling her brilliance into tangible results after years of steady research that would save more than the rest of them combined. Helena Harper, who lost her world despite her sacrifice and still got back up afterwards. And of course, Chris Redfield. Each of them had gone out of their way to maintain a relationship with him, despite how difficult he made it.
He's not sure how long he sat there before he heard the click of the door. Fuck.
Chris slid down the wall next to Leon. Leon refused to look up at Chris. Even the most basic, simple parts of getting married he managed to screw up. He was sure Chris was here to tell him that he changed his mind, that he couldn't deal with Leon’s problems anymore, that he was going to be gone from his life forever and take Rose with him. Leon held his breath while waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“Whatever you’ve convinced yourself of, I bet it’s probably not true.” Chris had a patient tone. Shit. He shouldn’t have to be so gentle on Leon’s behalf.
Leon didn’t move from his spot. His voice was muffled as he spoke through the fabric of his shirt sleeve. “You don’t know what I’m thinking about.”
“Can I guess?”
Leon peeked at Chris at that. Chris’s features were difficult to make out in the dark. “What do you mean, ‘guess’? Guess what, that I’m a fucking mess? That I’ve ruined the one good thing we could’ve had for ourselves?”
“Hmm, so that’s it then.” Dammit, Chris knew exactly how to press Leon’s buttons the right way to get what he wanted. “I know you don’t believe me when I say this, but that's not true.”
That somehow made Leon feel bad. “It’s not– it’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just hard to understand when there’s so much evidence otherwise.”
“Leon, do you think I’m a failure?”
“What? No!” This caused Leon to sit upright, turning to face Chris offended. “Why would I ever think that?”
Chris had his head leaned back against the concrete, eyes studying the wall across from them.
“I wasn't able stop Wesker, and then he went and hurt so many people. Failed Jill before having to go and fix my mistakes in Africa. Failed my team in Edonia. Couldn’t save Piers Nivans, even after he had to drag my stupid ass out of a drunken stupor. Failed the BSAA by not being there enough, to the point where I had to go back afterwards to try and fix what they had become. Couldn’t– couldn’t save Ethan Winters.” Chris’s voice cracked at the end when mentioning Rose’s father. He turned to face Leon. Even in the low light, Leon could see the wet sheen on his eyes. “It’s easy to say that kind of shit about oneself, yeah? Do you believe any of that about me, Leon?”
Leon forced himself to maintain eye contact through this despite how excruciating it was. It was also a moot point, because he was uniquely bad in a way that Chris wasn’t. He didn’t know how to explain that more clearly than he already had.
Chris sighed and rubbed his face with a hand. Leon's eye caught the glint of the ring now sitting in his finger. “Obviously I haven’t convinced you. Just know that from now on, every time you say something bad about yourself, I will be considering it for myself as well.”
“That’s not fair.”
“I don’t think it is, yeah. It’s really not fair that you’d say all those bad things about us.”
“You’re such a fucker.” Leon rested his head back on the tops of his knees.
“I’ve heard.” Chris smirked while trying to grab one of Leon’s hands. Leon let him. Chris continued, tone softer. “Leon, I think you should give yourself a little more grace. For both of our sakes.”
Leon closed his eyes. It sucked to consider thinking better about himself in that way. He’s spent decades getting good at putting himself down and he’d hate to waste so much time and effort. But Chris was asking, and that fucking idiot was already willing to marry Leon after everything.
When he opened his eyes again, Chris was sitting there waiting like they had all the time in the world to screw around in a dark garage instead of enjoying the rest of their wedding. Leon leaned forward and gave him a chaste kiss on the cheek. “You’ll have to promise me to repeat that every day for the rest of our lives.”
Chris grinned at that, standing and tugging Leon up with him. “I think I just promised that with our vows.”
“Oh good, then you’re prepared. Good luck.”
Chris nodded as he swung their arms while they walked back out to the yard where the reception had continued without them.